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Thursday, December 18, 2008

Mulberry

I just got back home from a trip north of the river... maybe that will teach me! I went to Mulberry, a bar/restaurant in the new 360 condo building downtown at 3rd & Nueces. And after looking it up online, and finding rave reviews for it on yelp.com, I felt compelled to join yelp and write a review as I wasn't in love. So what's written below is straight from my review on yelp. In brief, stay south! :)

I normally don't do online reviews of places, but I feel compelled to write since I am not completely in love with Mulberry as most other reviewers on here are. I have only been once (a Thursday in December), and while I will say the service was good, the portions are not worth the price they are asking.

My companion and I started with the coppa, gorgonzola, and crostini appetizer w/ honey. The presentation was lovely, but it it was thin pieces of bread, with a melba toast consistency. The coppa was tasty, but hard to bite into more than one piece with your teeth. So 4 small crostini for $10. I had the Cuban pork sandwich, which came with a mixed baby green salad with a really lovely vinaigrette. The sandwich itself though, was a large amount of bread, but not a lot of pork on the inside. It was good, but not great; cost was $11. My friend had the salmon filet entree, which was grilled (I think) with a citrus pesto on top, and the whole thing sitting on a bed of unexciting boxed couscous. Neither of us really tasted citrus in the pesto, it seemed like a pretty straightforward basil pesto. The salmon was cooked fine. When we were ordering, I asked the waiter what kind of salmon it was, and he said he didn't know. When he returned with the drinks, he did report that it was Atlantic salmon. (Not my personal first choice in salmon, but my companion was fine with it, and she had also already ordered.) The dish was $22. Would have been great at $12, but for the small portion that was offered, not worth it at $22.

I had a glass of Four Sisters Shiraz from Australia, at $9/glass. She had a sparking wine from Schramsberg, at $11/glass, I believe; they do have a nice wine list, though again, prices seem on the high side.

Service was quite good; three different people attended to us thoughout our hour there. And while the food was good, it wasn't great, especially for the prices they're asking. The place is also really really small. Only 2 tables, and then counters around the perimeter, and the bar in the middle. There's a large wooden pillar in one corner of the bar, and maybe because I was opposite it along the counter, it seems imposing and somewhat unnecessary. I fully admit to not being a downtown barfly to begin with, but I really can't see going back.